Adur Festival: Back for 2016 with 16 days of entertainment

Mags Bradley

Adur Festival is back, with 16 days of entertainment celebrating this year’s theme of place with more than 50 events, including film, workshops, live music, comedy, walks and talks.

Many of these are part of the registered events programme, where local artists and organisations have devised their own performances and activities. This is a fine example of the talent and enthusiasm in our local community and what is the backbone of Adur Festival.

The programme of curated events by the festival team begins at the launch day in Shoreham on Saturday, June 4, with the world première of Emergency Exit Arts’ interactive outdoor performance for families and communities,You Are Here.

On Saturday, June 18, the Alternative Village Green Day on Southwick Green features stunning Performance-Parkour from Urban Playground alongside local young people.

Last year, the festival commissioned an independent report on its impact between 2013 and 2015 - 89 per cent of respondents to a sample survey said they enjoyed the festival and 72 per sent said the festival made them feel more positive about Adur.

It cost an estimated £2.45 per each of the 24,000-plus participants to put on the festival last year and 33 per cent of businesses said they experienced increased footfall during the festival. One said its brings in extra staff during the festival.

In 2015, 1,000 local schoolchildren took part in high-quality art activities, including workshops in schools, and more than 100 artists displayed or performed their work. How’s that for impact?

Adur Festival has stiff competition from Brighton, Worthing and Chichester to be seen as a place where quality arts and cultural provision exists. However, with investment from the Arts Council for the past four years, along with Adur District Council and other supporters, it has grown to forge its own creative path.

While funding has been secured for the festival to take place in 2016 (no easy task), it has also borne the brunt of austerity this year, receiving nearly half the local authority grant awarded in 2015. The festival has benefited from some generous and committed sponsors in 2016 but each has its own ever-stretched community and corporate social responsibility budgets.

Adur Festival is 30 years old in 2017, so please enjoy this last year of the festival as a 20-something! Engage and tell the team what you think via email at katie@adurfestival.co.uk, Facebook and Twitter.

But please remember, from year to year, the festival is not a given, and as with all small charities and voluntary sector organisations, it is only with the support of participants and festivalgoers, funders getting on board and volunteers getting stuck in that it continues to exist.

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